1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic interactive communication system, and, more particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for managing software controls with a manager within an operating environment.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The number of computing platforms has markedly increased in recent years. Palm-size and/or portable computing devices have become commonplace. Further, the number of different versions of a particular platform has increased as well, each with specific operating systems. A variety of software programs also has been created to execute on the computing platforms. Conventional computing devices can pre-store information and program code in memory or receive the information from another device to enable executing the programs. With the multitude of computing platforms and operating systems, programs and information should be conceived with the ability to execute in many operating environments.
A software control may enable or launch different programs operating on different platforms. A software control may be a program module that enhances the functionality of an existing program. A control may act as a user interface function that allows the user to manipulate information stored in the memory of a computing platform. Controls may add functionality by calling existing components to integrate and appear as normal parts of the program. In general, however, these controls are dormant until activated and may not reside passively within a computing environment. This drawback may reduce the effectiveness of the controls and restrict the ability of the controls to interact within the software environment, and with other programs and controls. Further, conventional controls may not access the properties and methods of other controls without causing that control to become active.
Controls may be desirable on computing platforms that are portable devices, as discussed above. The controls may improve the functionality of the portable device and provide the user with additional information over programs stored on the device. Problems, however, may occur if too many controls are active at the same time as memory resources are claimed by the controls at the expense of the programs. Further, the controls may not be able to interact with each other, or the operating system of the device. Thus, the controls lose their ability to enhance the functionality of the computing platform